This week I've been busy watering my plants and tidying up the garden outside the bathroom window, and thinking about the time we renovated our bathroom to not much cost and huge effect.

When we first bought the house, the bathroom looked like this. It looks clean in the photo as it's a photo taken by the real estate agent, but that bathroom was a mess and full of cheap fittings and I hated it with a passion. It's hard to pick out, but that colour is like a awful tea green (I apologise if your bathroom is tea green, but it's not my taste). And that's LINO on the floor. LINO, I tell you!

So, after a few years of begging, the bathroom began. A brand new bath and loo, and some tiles on the floor. It's quite the small space, so we were limited with what we could do with it.

As we were quite broke at the time, we decided to use a thick sheet of ply instead of stone, which I really wanted. We coated it with marine boat varnish and it's still good to this day. The mirror was made out of some old wood from a university we found in a skip. All the fittings and tiles were bought on sale. The side of the bathroom cabinet is made of an old redwood (mahogany) wardrobe.

BUT - the really awesome part was the big window we put in! As there is zero to no chance anyone would walk by on our 5 acres, I wanted clear glass so I could see the sky and the birds. The garden has grown so much since then - and I have filled the bathroom with plants, which you'll see in a minute. We don't use this room as much, except for a bath. We decided against a screen as it made the space too small, so you have to angle the shower head just right and use a window cleaner for the tiles to sweep the water toward the plughole afterwards.

The cabinets we bought flatpack from Bunnings (Australians will know this mega store). The space wouldn't fit the third, but a basket for loo roll works a treat, and we don't need to bother with a toilet roll holder that way.

I'm an absolute sucker for a bath - I always feel happy in the water, and I'm literally running one whilst I write this post (actually, I'm having to type super fast as I worry it's overflowing!). Can you see the tree in the garden that isn't in the top photo? Birds come and sit on the branch - it's lovely to watch them whilst I splash about.

The top photo is a little out of date actually as I haven't had a glass of wine all year - although looking at this photo, I sure want one! My bathroom now looks like the photo on the left below, with a little jungle to make me think I'm in a tropical country. Oh, and the photo on the right hand side, which I love, is the print I have up above the bath that we bought in Vietnam some years ago.

Well, best go - I'm dying for a bath since I've been writin about it!

Do you have a renovation story to share?

Do you have plants in your bathroom to make your loo break more enjoyable??